Groningen hospital begins pre-pregnancy genetic disease trials

DutchNews, January 14, 2016

Groningen University’s teaching hospital is to offer a number of couples genetic tests to determine the risk of their child developing one of 50 untreatable hereditary illnesses, the NRC says on Thursday. 

The test to determine if the couple may pass on a genetic disorder to their offspring is carried out pre-pregnancy. It looks at the potential mutations in 70 genes, which are together responsible for 50 serious medical conditions, the paper says. 

The test will first be offered to would-be parents attending 15 different GP practices in Groningen. In preliminary research, 30% of the couples said they would be interested in taking part. 

Risk

The researchers expect one in 150 couples will be told there is at least a 25% chance their child will have one of the 50 conditions under investigation, the paper says.

‘These are conditions which no one wants and which no one would wish on a child,’ chief researcher Irene van Langen said. Once the principle of testing has been established, there is likely to be an ethical discussion about which other diseases should be added into the programme, Van Langen told the paper. 

Commercial

There are a number of commercial companies developing and offering genetic testing for prospective parents. 

Some people are already offered pre-pregnancy tests because certain medical conditions are common in their community.

In the Netherlands, for example, Amsterdam’s two teaching hospitals are working on genetic testing in Volendam, where a number of hereditary conditions are more common than in the rest of the country.

Related Article:

"The Future of DNA" - Aug 1, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... The DNA Evolution is Coming

The DNA of the Human Being is ready to shift and change. You'll never see it in a microscope because it's not chemical; it's physics. Listen for a moment, for you have already seen how this works. The 90 percent of DNA that heretofore was junk is now understood by your science.(****) Science now understands that this 90 percent is information - a manual - a control panel for the genes. But it's still a mystery as to what it actually contains or how it gives out the information to the genes. What is not acknowledged yet is that it is a multidimensional transmission. To most biologists that would be a stretch, but there actually is a bit of quantumness in your DNA, and this has also been scientifically seen (Garaiev and Popoinin experiments with DNA).(*****)

This 90 percent of DNA is like trillions of antennas in your body, ready to receive information and then rewrite the manual via the changes in your grids. The DNA is going to receive information and shift. It's going to affect genetics. Mothers will receive it first and pass it to their children. Mothers, you don't even know you've got it, yet you are passing it to your kids right now. Are you aware of the books of my partner from more than 10 years ago about "The Indigo Children"? These children were precursors to the new energy. The kids are different! It started before 2012 - way before - since the potentials were very high that you would make it, and you did. Mothers of grandchildren, do I have to ask you if they are different? Very different!

Changes in the Kids are First

A Human baby comes into the planet today, but what is going on today is different from when you were born. You're in a new place in space, the Sun is quiet, you have the nodes and the nulls (Part 1, Part 2) feeding new information into the grids, and the paradigm of consciousness is different for them than it was for you. Their Genesis cells, the "how a Human works" cells, are changing.

Things will start working that are unusually different for standard Human nature. The intuitive self, the barrier between innate and consciousness, will start to improve. The barrier starts to become less. Be ready for children who have very accurate intuition about what's wrong with them. If they tell you something's wrong, take them to the doctor! Immediately. Don't tell them, "It's your imagination, honey", or, "It will be okay later; it's growing pains." Do you hear that? There are those listening to this right now who need to hear that, because their children are saying, "I feel funny; something’s wrong." Mothers who are used to raising children are also used to an old energy paradigm that has a certain health template. This is changing. The kids are starting to awaken to being intuitive about their own health. The bridge isn't built yet to innate, but it is closer with them and they're feeling something. Innate is talking to them for the first time. Listen: You didn't have it, but they do. Listen to them.

The Akash of the child is starting to become clearer. These children are going to tell you many things about who they've been and what they've done. If you're a parent and you are listening to this now, the worst thing you can do is suppress it. The best thing you can do is to tell the child the absolute truth, the absolute truth: "I believe you." When you say things out loud, it helps the child. That's truthful and the child will get it. Listen, parent: In these things, be an ally to your child, and it will change your relationship with your children. Be honest with them about it all. Tell them not everyone will understand, so there are times to be quiet about it. These are instructions for kids in the New Age. These attributes are going to get even stronger, and your instructions will make sense.

Instinct is going to work better than it ever has. Instinct is not something that you are used to seeing much in Humans. You see it in animals mostly, because the offspring of animals have a very strong survival instinct. It is passed to them so well that they can actually walk within hours of birth! You don't have that. However, this same mechanical passing of instinct is starting to become stronger in Humans, and especially that which will come from the Akash. It is chemical as well as being esoteric (genetic and Akashic). As it is in animals, you should have it also and you will. You're going to see children remembering how to walk and how to eat much earlier, without training. It will be faster than the older paradigm, and faster than the doctors who know about child development will have seen. It will be "off the scale". Get ready for it; it's instinct. It's simple chemistry. It's the DNA working better.

If you look at the DNA cell itself, you might ask, what is happening? The truth is that DNA is becoming more informed, some say "enabled". Now, there is a buzzword in esoteric belief called activation. Please don't change it, but know that it's not accurate. You are not activating anything. Instead, you are releasing DNA from a prison. If you have somebody who is crippled in a chair, shriveled and not able to move, yet suddenly they are released from this bondage, and the fingers untangle and the hand starts to become whole again, it's because something that has happened to the DNA. It hasn't happened to the hand, or to the muscle, or to the fingers, not even to the arm, but to the DNA. It's a release. I want you to hold this vision. All the changes I have talked about are about being released from  a prison of crippled DNA! And (get ready), it happens to ALL DNA in the body at once. It's a "whole body experience", not a local "hand/arm" one.

Your DNA is crippled in this old energy, and it's your own free choice that created this. Your DNA, your lifespan (aging), your diseases are all where you wanted to take the energy of this planet, and your DNA cooperated. This is what you've lived with, and what is now changing. It's not DNA activation, it's DNA release. Release!

The profundity of it all: Do you realize the help that you have? Did you think for a moment that all of this was going to be you just doing these things? It involves the galaxy, the part of space you're in, the nodes and the nulls, and the creator of the Universe. It involves the Pleiadians, it involves your timeline, and it involves love. All of this is for you to sit in a new energy and release the bonds of your DNA. Now, dear ones, old souls, there is something you ought to know. You don't have to wait to be reborn for this. The old soul has the equipment inside right now, just like the newborn.

DNA Templates

Your DNA is filled with information and templates. Now, templates are patterns and paradigms of life. Most of these templates are ones that you have that are not complete. Now, what you don't know about a template is that is has what we would call a patterning of its own. If you have a portion of a template already, that is to say, a piece of the design, it draws to itself the rest of the design, if it can. Did you understand that? If you have a piece of the picture, that piece has an attitude - an attitude of desire - wanting the rest of the picture! As soon as it's possible to get that missing piece, it's like magnetics. It literally flies to itself and the template snaps into place and you get the whole thing. All of you have pieces of the template and the ones who have the most profoundly "ready" pieces are old souls (the ones reading this). Your earth experience has waited for this! You are then going to complete the templates that are missing, old soul.

Genesis Cells: The Starting Template

This term I'm using in this message is a Kryon term today, not a medical term. There may be a medical term similar, but this is different. One of the templates that always exists and never goes away is part of the Human manual. It’s not as linear as in this explanation, but it will work. Think of it this way: I want you to think of the manual of birth. When you came in, what was the manual like? What page were you on when you were five days old? What page were you on at six months? What page were you on when you were 30? You all know that all the pages are different because of the chronology of growing up.

The pages are still there, and the template is still there for what I call Genesis cells. Genesis cells, as I will define them, are the cells of a newborn that accelerate growth and learning in a special way. The child absorbs so much of the world around him/her in six months. This includes speech, language, the beginning of standing and walking, and much more. The antennas of the Genesis manual are so big! They are listening to the attitudes and the consciousness of everything around them. You already know that. It's active for a newborn Human, then it slows down and you become the adult. Genesis cells are magic. They are used at first, then they are not, but they're still there and never go away. The template is still there, the instruction sets for how they are made, if you want to call it that, are still there. This is all physics, for the chemistry of how it all works is physics. What you should know about the children of today is that the antennas are up to 10 times as long as they were for you.

Now, old soul, what if I told you that you could release these cells now, make them active for you? They could be available for you now, just go get them in the manual. Do it with affirmations, do it with consciousness change, do it with meditation. However you communicate with innate, it's ready to release the Genesis cells from their time prison to be used again! What that means to you is fast-track growth to enlightenment! They work with the Akash!

It's for any situation you might have. Don't limit it to what you think you need!  Always ask, "Dear Spirit, what do I need?" State, "Dear Spirit, this and something better." Use this potential! Genesis cells are ready for the old soul. I keep saying old soul, did you notice? In other words, a number of lifetimes gives you the template information that a newbie would not have who has only been on the earth a few times. Old souls have hundreds of lifetimes, maybe thousands in order to develop experience and the template of knowledge. Every one of you in this room can say to yourself, "I know that I've been here before" and your innate will vibrate with the truth of it. You know too much! You feel too much! You're in this room listening to channelling! This message is accurate and it's true. You're an old soul. Everything I've just told you is about the enhancement of the Human Being in an energy that you have expected.

I close with this: The secret to mining your Akash, or releasing the template, is by having a compassionate consciousness. Does that surprise you? That's what has been missing all along. If you are going to mine your Akash [pull upon the things you have learned in the past] and start rewriting who you are, you're going to have to come to an agreement of compassion with yourself. How are you doing with lack of anger, care for others, purity of God inside? The physics of consciousness to create compassion creates what I call compassionate action. It's for everyone in the room and those reading. An old soul knows how to do this. Listen: I know who you are. You wouldn't be listening or reading unless you were an old soul, even an uninterested old soul. You are one, and you know you are. Compassion is the king of all emotions at this point on the planet. It's going to lead you into an evolved state of love, and without compassion and caring for others, it is not going to work. In fact, nothing will work.

Very slowly there is going to be a split of consciousness on the planet, and we have talked to you about it before. There will be those who are compassionate and those who are not, and it's going to be obvious, so obvious! Caring and uncaring. There is a dark army right now on this planet. What is its "compassion factor"? Do you understand? It's a free choice state of mind, but that's the split to come. Don't worry about this, compassionate one. When you take the attributes of the master, light surrounds you. No more fortressing or protecting yourself from darkness. It will retreat from you automatically. No more catching the diseases of the day, they won't be able to touch you with compassion. It's physics; it's real; it's physical and it's happening now. Your society will reflect this sooner than you think. When you turn on your news and you think I'm crazy, just wait. There's some wild cards coming. Benevolence is a new energy!

I'm Kryon, in love with humanity.

And so it is.

KRYON

African Union vows Ebola fund as Oxfam calls for 'Marshall Plan'

Yahoo - AFP, 28 Jan 2015

Medical workers spray their protective gear at an Ebola treatment centre in

Monrovia on December 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Evan Schneider)

Addis Ababa (AFP) - The African Union plans to launch an Ebola fund and disease control centre, officials said Wednesday, as aid agency Oxfam warned leaders needed to keep their promises to boost healthcare systems on the continent.

Oxfam called for a "massive post-Ebola Marshall Plan", referring to the United States aid package to rebuild Europe after World War II.

"This disaster might have been avoided if African governments had made free public health care and spent more on their health systems, under the commitment they made 14 years ago in the Abuja Declaration," Oxfam said in a statement.

"It's clear that Africa's existing architecture for early disease detection, response and control is wholly inadequate," the aid agency added.

AU Commissioner for Social Affairs Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko on Wednesday said an African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention would be set up by mid-2015.

"It is a reality, it is going to happen," Kaloko said, with the first phase concentrating on setting up "an early warning system" for the detection of epidemics. "We should be ready the next time. We shouldn't be caught unprepared."

However, its exact location remains undecided.

"We will start with a coordination centre within the AU and then set up up to eight regional centres," Kaloko added.

The AU Ebola Solidarity fund will be launched on Friday during a summit meeting for leaders of the 54-member bloc, which has already sent hundreds of health workers as part of its mission to tackle the outbreak in west Africa.

In November, the AU, African Development Bank and regional business leaders set up a crisis fund to help areas hit by the Ebola outbreak, with some $28 million pledged.

"It is time for Africa to mobilise its own resources in support of its development and take charge of its own destiny," AU chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said Wednesday.

The worst outbreak of the virus in history has seen nearly 9,000 deaths in a year -- almost all in the three west African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone -- and sparked a major health scare worldwide.

Related Articles:

The cost of not caring: How inaction is making us sick
Obama urges Africa's leaders to 'serve their people'

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… PHASE THREE

The years 2013 to 2025 are the final phase. I tell you now that these things are going to sound too grand. What I give you now are only potentials and you may hear them and say, "Well, those are just potentials. They're too grand. Those things can't happen." Go back with me 20 years. All the potentials I gave you in 1989 took place. They took place because that was what was within the potentials. It was a reading of humanity within your consciousness. So I do it again, now. These are the potentials for the final phase of the Great Shift.

The first one is the adjustment of actual Human societal thinking. It represents the energies in the way you work and think. These are the kind of things a sociologist would study. Let me give it another name: It's an actual shift to a higher vibration of Human nature. "Kryon, that's impossible. Human nature is Human nature. We can't change it." Well, you've already begun it. You're starting to clean up your financial institutions worldwide. Did you notice? Dear ones, if anyone had ever told you 30 years ago that you were going to clean up your financial institutions, they would have laughed. For don't you know the way society works? Those who have the money win. Banks hold all the cards, and they are run by the those in high places. They are untouchable, since the government is often the same people! Well, why don't you tell them that today. Look around you, because something just happened. It's not working that way, is it? What would make the difference? Consciousness. A new paradigm. You can see it in the news.

Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader. Remember where you heard it... in a strange, esoteric meeting with a guy in a chair pretending to channel. [Kryon being factious... Kryon humor] Then when you hear it, you'll know better, won't you? "Maybe there was something really there," you'll say. "Maybe it was real," you'll say. Perhaps you can skip all the drama of the years to come and consider that now? [Kryon humor again]

These leaders are going to fall over. You'll have a slow developing leadership coming to you all over the earth where there is a new energy of caring about the public. "That's just too much to ask for in politics, Kryon." Watch for it. That's just the beginning of this last phase. So many things are coming. The next one is related to this, for a country in survival with sickness cannot sustain a leadership of high consciousness. There is just too much opportunity for power and greed. But when a continent is healed, everything changes.

The next one: You're going to heal a continent. Watch for it. It begins. Watch for major shift in Africa. We have said this before, even within the meetings I spoke in what you call the United Nations. Africa has never even been a potential player in the economic field, because it has been sick. What happens when you heal a continent? I'm going to tell you. Suddenly, the people on that continent also want what you have - government that works, peace, their own homes, schools, hospitals, and even banks where they can borrow from. They don't have any of those now, not really. Everything with substance is from somewhere else. That means you're going to have a continent that's going to arise that will become a major player on the stage of Earth's finances and political influence - an entire continent with all the resources on it, with even the potential for unification of common purpose, much like what you have now in your EU. I'm giving you information, and when it happens, again, I say you'll remember where you heard it.

Many years ago, the prevailing thought was that nobody should consider China as a viable player on the economic stage. They were backward, filled with a system that would never be westernized, and had no wish to become joined with the rest of the world's economic systems. Look what has happened in only 30 years. Now, look at Africa differently.   …”

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text-Version)

" .... Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit.. ...."

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) 

“… The Future of the Illuminati

Now, I want to tell you something that you didn't expect and something I've reported only one other time. What about all of the money that the Illuminati has? There are trillions and trillions of euro in banks, under their control, waiting. What are they going to do with it and where are they going to use it? It's still here. They're waiting.

This group is waiting for something to happen that they know is going to happen, for they see it coming as much as I do. However, I would like to tell you something that they don't expect. With awareness comes generational shift. Those in charge of this money will not always be elders. The indigos eventually will have it.

They are waiting for something to happen in Africa - the building of a new civilization, a continent that has nothing to unlearn. Once Africa is cured, once it's ready, a new civilization can be created from the ground up. Africans will be ready to learn everything about building a foundation for the most advanced civilization ever and will do it with the most modern and inventive systems available. Eventually, this new continent will even beat the economics of China.

This is the prediction and always has been, and the Illuminati's money will fund it. Did I say the Illuminati will fund it? [Kryon laugh] The Illuminati's money will fund it, but there is a difference from the past, dear ones. The ones who inherit the positions in the Illuminati will be a different consciousness. Listen, they are not suddenly going to be the ones who have the good of everyone in their hearts - hardly. They want to make money, but what they will see instead is a way to make a great deal of money through this investment. In the process, it will automatically help hundreds of thousands, and they will be at the beginning, the foundation, that builds the new Africa. The new African states of unification eventually will create a continent stronger than any of the others, and it will have one currency. The resources alone will dwarf anything in the world. ...”

Urinary tract infections 'resistant to antibiotics'

BBC News

E.coli causes about 80% of UTIs

Urinary tract infections are becoming increasingly hard to treat because of emerging resistance to current antibiotic drugs, experts warn.

They say the problem is spawned by the overuse of antibiotics in the farming industry which enter the food chain.

Scientists from the University of Hong Kong found evidence suggesting resistance genes are being passed from animals to humans in this way.

Their findings are published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

The researchers examined Escherichia coli bacteria, which are responsible for the vast bulk of human urinary tract infections. (UTIs).

Looking at samples from humans and animals they found an identical gene for antibiotic resistance was present.

The gene, called aacC2, encodes resistance to a commonly-used antibiotic gentamicin and was found in approximately 80% of the 249 human and animal samples the team studied.

Lead researcher Dr Pak-Leung Ho said: "These resistance genes may possibly spread to the human gut via the food chain, through direct contact with animals or by exposure to contaminated water sources.

"When the resistance genes end up in bacteria that cause infections in humans, the diseases will be more difficult to treat."

Global problem

Although the research was carried out in only one region - Hong Kong - experts say the problem is global.

Dr Ho said: "With the international trading of meats and food animals, antibiotic resistance in one geographic area can easily become global.

"Health authorities need to closely monitor the transmission of resistance between food-producing animals and humans and assess how such transfers are affecting the effectiveness of human use of antibiotics."

Professor Chris Thomas, an expert in bacteria at the University of Birmingham, said doctors in the UK were also seeing resistant strains.

"Antibiotic use in animal husbandry is tightly controlled in Europe.

"But even if the problem is being curbed here, people travelling abroad and moving from community to community will bring resistance with them and it will spread.

"It's a worldwide problem."

He said the resistant infections could be treated with other, sometimes more expensive antibiotics. However, with time, resistance may develop to these too, he warned.

In the UK, it is estimated that one woman in three will have a UTI before the age of 24, and that half of all women will have at least one UTI during their lifetime. They are less common among men.

Bacteria in chicken

Related Article:

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria affecting humans

Jump in antibiotic resistance linked to food industry

Green spaces 'improve health'

BBC News

The best health benefits come from living
less than a kilometre (0.62miles) from a green space

There is more evidence that living near a 'green space' has health benefits.

Research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health says the impact is particularly noticeable in reducing rates of mental ill health.

The annual rates of 15 out of 24 major physical diseases were also significantly lower among those living closer to green spaces.

One environmental expert said the study confirmed that green spaces create 'oases' of improved health around them.

The researchers from the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam looked at the health records of 350,000 people registered with 195 family doctors across the Netherlands.

Only people who had been registered with their GP for longer than 12 months were included because the study assumed this was the minimum amount of time people would have to live in an environment before any effect of it would be noticeable.

Health impact

The percentages of green space within a one and three kilometre (0.62 and 1.86 miles) radius of their home were calculated using their postcode.

On average, green space accounted for 42% of the residential area within one kilometre (0.62 miles) radius and almost 61% within a three kilometre (1.86 miles) radius of people's homes.

DISEASES THAT BENEFIT MOST FROM GREEN SPACES

• Coronary heart disease
• Neck, shoulder, back, wrist and hand complaints
• Depression and anxiety
• Diabetes
• Respiratory infections and asthma
• Migraine and vertigo
• Stomach bugs and urinary tract infections
• Unexplained physical symptoms

And the annual rates for 24 diseases in 7 different categories were calculated.

The health benefits for most of the diseases were only seen when the greenery was within a one kilometre ( 0.62 miles ) radius of the home.

The exceptions to this were anxiety disorders, infectious diseases of the digestive system and medically unexplained physical symptoms which were seen to benefit even when the green spaces were within three kilometres of the home.

The biggest impact was on anxiety disorders and depression.

Anxiety disorders

The annual prevalence of anxiety disorders for those living in a residential area containing 10% of green space within a one kilometre (0.62 miles) radius of their home was 26 per 1000 whereas for those living in an area containing 90% of green space it was 18 per 1000.

For depression the rates were 32 per 1000 for the people in the more built up areas and 24 per 1000 for those in the greener areas.

The researchers also showed that this relation was strongest for children younger than 12.

They were 21% less likely to suffer from depression in the greener areas.

Two unexpected findings were that the greener spaces did not show benefits for high blood pressure and that the relation appeared stronger for people aged 46 to 65 than for the elderly.

The researchers think the green spaces help recovery from stress and offer greater opportunities for social contacts.

They say the free physical exercise and better air quality could also contribute.

Dr Jolanda Maas of the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, said: "It clearly shows that green spaces are not just a luxury but they relate directly to diseases and the way people feel in their living environments."

"Most of the diseases which are related to green spaces are diseases which are highly prevalent and costly to treat so policy makers need to realise that this is something they may be able to diminish with green spaces."

Professor Barbara Maher of the Lancaster Environment Centre said the study confirmed that green spaces create oases of improved health around them especially for children.

She said: "At least part of this 'oasis' effect probably reflects changes in air quality.

"Anything that reduces our exposure to the modern-day 'cocktail' of atmospheric pollutants has got to be a good thing."

Work stress 'changes your body'

BBC News

A stressful job has a direct biological impact on the body, raising the risk of heart disease, research has indicated. The study reported in the European Heart Journal focused on more than 10,000 British civil servants.

Stress seems to produce biochemical changes

Those under 50 who said their work was stressful were nearly 70% more likely to develop heart disease than the stress-free.

The stressed had less time to exercise and eat well - but they also showed signs of important biochemical changes.

The studies of Whitehall employees - from mandarins to messengers - started in the 1960s, but this particular cohort has been followed since 1985.

As well as documenting how workers felt about their job, researchers monitored heart rate variability, blood pressure, and the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood.

They also took notes about diet, exercise, smoking and drinking.

Then they found out how many people had developed coronary heart disease (CHD) or suffered a heart attack and how many had died of it.

Lead researcher Dr Tarani Chandola, of University College London, said: "During 12 years of follow up, we found that chronic work stress was associated with CHD and this association was stronger both among men and women aged under 50.

"Among people of retirement age - and therefore less likely to be exposed to work stress - the effect on CHD was less strong."

Biological factors

On the one hand, those who reported stressful jobs appeared less likely to eat sufficient amounts of fruit and vegetables, and were less likely to exercise - although problem drinking did not emerge as a significant problem in this study.

Lifestyle, the researchers concluded, was nonetheless a key factor in the development of the disease.

But the team also say they are now confident they understand the biological mechanisms that link stress and disease, a connection widely held to exist but which has been difficult to prove.

These mechanisms held true regardless of lifestyle. Stress appeared to upset the part of the nervous system which controls the heart, telling it how to work and controlling the variability of the heart rate.

Those who reported stress were also recorded as having poor "vagal tone" - the impulses which regulate heartbeat.

A major part of the neuroendocrine system - which releases hormones - also seemed to be disturbed by stress, evidenced by the fact that anxious workers had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the morning.

Worker status

While the younger worker seemed to be more at risk, the findings were the same regardless of the status of the worker.

Previous studies had suggested those of lower employment grades may be more at risk.

"We did not find strong evidence that the effect of work stress on heart disease is worse for those in lower grades - the effect of stress was pretty much the same across different grades," said Dr Chandola.

"However, later on in the study, some parts of the civil service underwent considerable change in their working environments, including privatisation.

"We are currently exploring whether the effects of these changed work stress levels, partly brought about by privatisation, are particularly deleterious for those in the low grades of the civil service."

The British Heart Foundation said the research added to our understanding of how stress at work may alter the body's chemistry.

"The study also reinforces what has been identified by previous research, that stress at work is often associated with unhealthy behaviours such as smoking, lack of exercise and a poor diet - all which can impact on heart health," said June Davison.

"There are many ways that we can help ourselves by learning how to cope with stressful situations. "Keeping fit and active also helps to relieve stress and therefore reduce the risk of heart disease."

Spears hospitalized; loses right to see kids

CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Britney Spears was derailed yet again in her struggle to get her life back on track, losing custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Spears appeared conscious as she was taken from her home.

A court commissioner Friday gave sole physical and legal custody of the former couple's two little boys to Federline and suspended the troubled pop star's visitation rights.

Spears was hauled away from her home to a hospital by paramedics a day before, after police had to intervene when she refused to return the children to Federline after a court-monitored visit.

Commissioner Scott Gordon ordered another hearing January 14.

Federline had previously been awarded temporary custody of 2-year-old Sean Preston and 1-year-old Jayden James because Spears has defied court orders, resulting in limitations on her visitation.

"I'm not happy about any of these events," Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan said when he left a closed-door emergency hearing Friday afternoon. "There's no winners here."

Federline was not in court for the hearing, Kaplan said.

The attorney had said he did not expect the ruling to be released until Monday, but it was issued shortly after the hearing concluded.

Law professor Steve Cron, who is not involved in the Spears-Federline matter, predicted Spears will face sanctions from the court for her behavior.

"My guess is that she won't be seeing her kids for a while," said Cron, who teaches at Pepperdine University in Malibu.

Gordon has little option other than to further reduce the time Spears can legally spend with her children, Cron said, "at least for the time being until she gets some help. She's obviously a very troubled person."

The 26-year-old pop star remained hospitalized Friday.

Her latest troubles began around 8 p.m. Thursday when officers were called to her home to help resolve a dispute over her refusal to turn the children over to Federline, as dictated by their custody agreement.

It took two to three hours to resolve the conflict, said Los Angeles Police Officer Ana Aguirre.

"There was a time where she was within the residence and wasn't available to be speaking to the officers, apparently," she said. "There was no threat to the children."

"Police resolved the conflict," Aguirre said. "Both children were turned over to her ex-husband Kevin Federline for custody, and she was in fact taken to a local hospital for medical treatment."

Early police reports said officers thought Spears might have been under the influence of some substance, but Aguirre said there was no evidence of that.

"Our understanding is that was not the case," she said.

Officers at the scene determined that paramedics "needed to be called" but it was unclear why, she said.

"We're not aware of any type of injuries that she sustained" and she was not combative with authorities, Aguirre said.

Spears wasn't arrested in connection with the custody dispute, Aguirre said.

"There was no actual crime that was involved," the police spokeswoman said.

Kaplan said he went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after Spears was admitted there, but he declined to provide details about the pop star, her ex-husband, or their two sons.

Spears' mother, Lynne Spears, also would not disclose information about her daughter's condition. "Just say prayers," she told the celebrity news show "Access Hollywood" by phone Friday.

Hospital spokeswoman Simi Singer wouldn't confirm or deny reports in entertainment media that Spears would be held for 72 hours for psychological evaluation. The reports didn't identify their sources.

Spears "needs an enormous amount of help to find out why the erratic behavior," said Ruth Schreibman, a marriage and family therapist who does not treat the pop star.

"Is she bipolar? Is she depressed? Is it postpartum depression? Is it drugs and alcohol?" she said. "There's just so much attention and it's such an accelerated speed of life that how can there be any normalcy?"

Spears and Federline were married in October 2004. Her life has spiraled downward since their divorce in July. She has been photographed without underwear and appeared to be drunk and out of control in public. She shaved her head, beat a car with an umbrella and spent a month in rehab.

She had hoped to regain her pop crown with a much-hyped performance at MTV's Video Music Awards in September, but it was universally panned by fans and critics.

Still, Spears' latest album, "Blackout," earned positive reviews when it was released in October and brought Spears her first No. 1 hit in years, "Gimme More."

However, Spears remains a paparazzi target for her bizarre antics, which include frequent stops at gas-station bathrooms and holing up in a hotel room with a paparazzo.

Her 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn, made headlines last month when she announced that she is pregnant.

Studies show yoga has multiple benefits

By C. Vidyashankar, MD, Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:44pm EST

CHANNAI, India (Reuters Health) - Yoga induces a feeling of well-being in healthy people, and can reverse the clinical and biochemical changes associated with metabolic syndrome, according to results of studies from Sweden and India. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity and high blood sugar.

Dr. R.P. Agrawal, of the SP Medical College, Bikaner, India, and colleagues evaluated the beneficial effects of yoga and meditation in 101 adults with features of metabolic syndrome. In the study, 55 adults received three months of regular yoga including standard postures and Raja Yoga, a form of transcendental meditation daily, while the remaining received standard care.

Waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides were significantly lower, and "good" HDL cholesterol levels were higher in the yoga group as compared to controls, Agrawal's team reports in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice.

In the second study, published online December 19 in BioMed Central Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Dr. Anette Kjellgren from the University of Karlstad, Sweden and colleagues evaluated the beneficial effects of yoga-like breathing exercises on healthy volunteers.

Fifty-five adults were advised to practice "Sudarshan Kriya," which involves cycles of slow normal and rapid breathing exercises. The exercises were practiced for an hour daily, six days a week for six weeks, while 48 controls were advised to relax in an armchair for 15 minutes daily.

At the end of the study period, feelings of anxiety, stress and depression were significantly lower and levels of optimism significantly higher in the yoga group compared to the control group, Kjellgren and colleagues report.

Yoga induces a "relaxation response" associated with reduced nervous system activity and a feeling of well-being probably due to an increase in antioxidants and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, they suggest.

Yoga not only helps in prevention of lifestyle diseases, but can also be "a powerful adjunct therapy when these diseases arise," co-investigator Dr. Faahri Saatiglou, from the University of Oslo, told Reuters Health. "We do not emphasize this point enough in our Western health care."

SOURCES: Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, December 2007, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, online December 19, 2007.

Indonesia may stop `Tree Man` being treated in US: report

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - An Indonesian villager dubbed "Tree Man" for massive bark-like warts growing on much of his body may be barred from traveling to the United States to receive treatment, a report said Tuesday.

Woody growths entirely cover 32-year-old Dede's hands in long, root-like tendrils that leave him unable to work -- except as a member of a travelling "freak show". He was in a Discovery Channel documentary this month.

"We're clear about not giving them (US doctors) permission to bring Dede to the US," health ministry spokeswoman Lily Sriwahyuni Sulistiyowati was quoted as saying by Warta Kota daily.

"Moreover, people like Dede, who live in small villages, don't want to be taken away, especially to give blood samples. Normally village people don't easily give foreigners permission to test their blood," she said.

The spokeswoman declined to give an immediate comment when contacted by AFP.

Anthony Gaspari, a dermatologist from the University of Maryland, examined Dede as part of the documentary.

He believes the massive growths are a combination of the human papilloma virus, which causes warts, and a genetic disorder that means his immune system is too weak to fight them off.

Gaspari told AFP from the United States that he was disappointed by the reported health ministry decision but said it would not stop his initial plan to treat his condition.

Gaspari said he was in negotiations with a US pharmaceutical company to provide Dede with an ongoing supply of vitamin A, which would hopefully boost his immune system and hinder the growth of the warts.

"My initial plan would be to send medication to Indonesia to a local doctor to administer," he said. "If it doesn't work I won't have any choice but to try to get him over here."

Possible alternative treatments, such as chemotherapy, carried higher risks and needed to be closely monitored outside of Indonesia, Gaspari said.

Genetic testing would also require fresh blood samples, which meant they would have to be taken in the United States, he added.

"I suppose at a university in Indonesia it's maybe possible to do the testing, I just don't know whether the expertise would be available," he said.

Alcohol disease 'hits young hard'

By Branwen Jeffreys, Health correspondent, BBC News

Doctors are seeing rising numbers of patients in their late teens and early twenties with severe alcohol-related disease, many of them women.

Of 115 specialists who replied to a BBC questionnaire, 77 said they had treated at least one patient aged under 25.

Many said the social acceptability of heavy drinking was the most important influence on young people.

The warning comes as a new alliance calls for a rise in alcohol taxes, and a bar on TV advertising before 9pm.

Twenty-four organisations, representing doctors and charities, have joined together to form the Alcohol Health Alliance.

It wants the government to make alcohol misuse a higher priority.

Public health minister Dawn Primarolo said the government had already drawn up a plan for concerted action.

The drink industry says alcohol consumption is falling, and that increasing the cost would hit the majority of people who enjoy a drink in moderation.

Generational shift

The comments of the specialists who responded to the BBC reveal a generational shift on hospital wards around the UK.

Whereas before most hospital consultants would have seen patients in their fifties or sixties in the past, they now describe seeing patients in their early twenties with alcohol-related hepatitis, and women whose livers are permanently damaged with the scarring known as cirrhosis by the time they are 30.

Dr Jonathan Mitchell, a consultant hepatologist in Plymouth, is one of the specialists who contacted the BBC.

He said many of his patients did not realise the permanent damage to their health caused by regular heavy drinking.

Until it reaches a critical stage most liver disease is virtually without symptoms.

Dr Mitchell said: "I've seen patients who've been admitted with pretty catastrophic bleeding from stomach and oesophagus with no prior warning of a problem of their liver.

"Others may present with jaundice or swelling of the abdomen because there's a lot of fluid in the abdomen.

"All these three things are signs of quite advanced liver disease and can come out of the blue."

Heavy drinking 'normal'

Fatty deposits gradually build up on the liver as alcohol interferes with the way it would normally be processed.

What follows is an inflammation within the liver which often leads to low grade hepatitis.

Although the liver has a remarkable capacity to regenerate the damage eventually reaches the stage where the scarring permanently alters the structure of the liver.

For some patients this will lead to an agonising wait on the liver transplant waiting list before they are forty.

He is not alone in his concerns that the normalisation of heavy drinking is putting a generation at risk from a silent killer.

Of the 115 consultants who contacted the BBC 101 said there had been an increase in the number of patients they were seeing for alcohol-related disease.

The shift in the age profile of their patients is also very marked, with 77 saying they had treated a patient under the age of 25.

Worrying snapshot

The doctor's responses are a depressing snapshot of the ages and condition of the patients they see:

• 24-year-old woman with advanced cirrhosis who died
• 25-year-old with advanced alcoholic cirrhosis
• 19-year-old female with end stage liver disease
• 21-year-old who died from acute alcohol poisoning.
  
  

While attention is often focused on the social disorder caused by binge drinking, many doctors say the serious health effects are not given enough attention.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, is one of the leading figures in the new campaign.

He said: "If you look at the burden of damage to society, it's hugely greater for alcohol than for drugs, but the majority of money has always gone on drugs, partly because of the strong link to crime."

Government view

The government has recently beefed up its Home Office target for reducing harm from alcohol.

It has also introduced a cross-departmental Alcohol Strategy.

This includes a public information campaign to promote sensible drinking, an independent review of alcohol pricing and promotion, toughened enforcement of underage sales by retailers and plans to introduce more help for people who want to drink less.

Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, said the government had introduced a comprehensive strategy to tackle problem drinking.

She said tax on alcohol in the UK was already the second highest in Europe, and only about 1% of pubs had extended opening hours since extended licensing laws were introduced.

A bigger problem was the discounting of prices by supermarkets and off licences.

She said: "We're looking at where it's available, who it's available to, how it's being marketed, what the targeting is and what we can do to give clear messages and to make those who are selling it responsible."